Wolf Man is the latest horror movie from Leigh Whannell, who’s known for horror hits including Insidious, Saw, and most recently, his adaptation of the Universal Monster movie The Invisible Man. Wolf Man was one of my most anticipated horror movies of 2025, and I’m pleased to say that Whannell has delivered once again, with a surprisingly heartfelt tale that takes us on a horrifying journey of grief and loss.
These themes are present throughout the whole movie, and it wastes no time in throwing us straight into the action after a family – parents Blake (Christopher Abbott) and Charlotte (Julia Garner), and their daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) – are attacked by a creature during a full moon. The family end up barricading themselves into their isolated farmhouse hoping to protect themselves from the danger that lurks outside – but unknowingly, they’ve inadvertently locked danger inside with them.
Blake’s body begins to deteriorate and transform into something monstrous, confronting the viewer with horror that is both physical and psychological. Much like The Substance, our favorite body horror of 2024, it doesn’t shy away from the gory detail and physiological trauma of a human being metamorphosing into something utterly inhuman . Expect nails ripping off, a jaw being broken, and bones moving – and it sounds as dreadful as it looks, thanks to a sound design that leaves nothing to the imagination, and which really elevates the whole movie. And yet, as horrific as it is to witness, it’s the psychological aspects of Blake’s transformation that scared me the most. The loss of a person’s identity is a recurring theme across many body horrors; it’s perhaps captured best in the way that Jeff Goldblum’s scientist slowly loses his mind as he loses his humanity in The Fly, and in Wolf Man Whannell approaches a similarly traumatic metamorphosis through a very sympathetic lens.
Without giving too much away, Wolf Man uses some clever POV shifting so we get to experience Blake’s transformation through both human and wolf’s eyes, with the latter making for some particularly distressing scenes. As he changes into a ferocious wild animal, Blake can no longer understand his terrified wife and daughter., everything is more heightened. Their inability to communicate cleverly mirrors Blake and Charlotte’s already strained relationship.
The goal of a the original Universal Monster movies was to be scary, and the creature in the latest Wolf Man adaptation certainly is. There are some effective jump scares here, again thanks in part to the sound design, which are best experienced on a big screen, though some might argue that the movie is too reliant on the jump. I’m inclined to agree – and for me the psychological aspects of the story are just as frightening if not more so.
The creature design did seem to divide audiences when teasers for Wolf Man were first released, and while I do think it could have been a bit more, well, wolf-like in places, no horror movie has so far really managed to nail the werewolf, and any shortcomings in this department are easily made up for by Abbott’s performance as a man losing both his own humanity and the people he loves. I can easily forgive some slightly-off special effects when a story is as rich and thought-provoking as this, proving that sometimes raw, human emotion is the scariest thing of all. All three of the lead actors are fantastic, but 10-year-old Matilda Firth deserves a special shoutout for the way in which she skilfully navigates the terrifying, dark, jump-filled landscape of Wolf Man, displaying a confidence and maturity way beyond her years. Considering I’m approaching 30 and I watched a lot of this through my fingers, she’s officially braver than me.
Wolf Man is quite a way to start 2025, and while January is not typically the season for horror, it’s already set the bar high for scarier entries among the new movies we’re looking forward to this year. You’ll want to catch it in the theater for the best experience – but you might want to make sure there’s not a full moon that night, as it could make for a nerve-jangling walk home.
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lucy.buglass@futurenet.com (Lucy Buglass)
